Palace Voznesensky
Palace Voznesensky was formerly a very powerful warlord and general villain, able to conquer armies with nothing but his own power. Occupying a sort of "final boss" status, he was nearly unstoppable. Initially born a mundie, he originally gained his powers through various dark arts and rituals that forsook the gods themselves, inspiring their scorn while granting him unfathomable supernatural power. However, about 10 years before the events of Destruction Bench Agreement a group of nine legendary and powerful heroes known as Magnum Opus tracked down and battled Palace for various reasons. Together they managed to defeat this demon once and for all. However, before killing him and ridding the world of his blight for good, one especially pacifistic member of the party convinced everyone to spare his life. Instead, she used her Overclass to restrict and limit Palace's powers immensely, reducing him all the way down to 1 proficiency and making his abilities nearly impossible to use. This restricting will stay until Palace fully reforms into a genuinely good person. Now without his powers, Palace has to do things like "get a job" and "pay taxes" and "obey the law", all that dumb stuff. He is not happy but can't really do anything about it, often trying and failing to appear like he's a good boy. Nowadays Magnum Opus is retired and checks up on Palace, teasing him and just generally acting like mandated friends, despite Palace's very obvious hatred of the situation. Powers Palace's abilities are all incredibly powerful, however he doesn't get immediate access to him. As his powers are continually restricted by the Overclass used on him, he starts every combat with only his basic hand-to-hand combat attack and a single ability of his at level 1. All of his abilities and talents are put into what's known as a "Binding Queue", which is an ordered list. Whenever he performs any roll, regardless of whether it's a success or failure, the cursor moves over to the right on the Binding Queue, selecting the next thing in the list. Once per round at the start of his turns Palace gets a point of Unleashing, which he can spend as free actions to unlock whatever part of his kit is currently selected in his Binding Queue, at level 1. If he unlocks something that he's already unlocked this combat, it gets boosted to the next level. Currently he can only access his kit up to level 4, although if he weren't restricted they'd be at level 6 consistently. Amongst his actual powers, Palace can channel unholy occult energy for various brutal attacks. He can create an "Orb of Iconoclasm" between his hands and fire it for a massively damaging projectile. He can warp space to teleport, and even fly at higher levels. He can use his energy like a crucible to create a few apparitional clones of him to perform juggling moves and even use his other abilities at a lesser effectiveness when at higher levels. His most prominent ability is The Godpress, where he dashes up to 10 spaces, grabbing and dragging an enemy along until he slams them against a wall, the floor, or even another person, dealing large amounts of damage. While not technically an ability, Palace can also use his powers to create a massive energy hammer that destroys all defenses it carves through. He also has a list of signature "Occult Arts", which all act as once per combats that he can only access when Occult Art is at certain levels. At level 1 he has Genocide Wave, where he fires a massive beam out of his mouth for a large amount of damage that he gets to split freely amongst hit targets. At level 2 he has Wyrmwood's Corona, which has him create six demonic wings as energy gets unleashed in rings that wash across the whole field for unavoidable damage. At level 3 he has the Massacre Reaper, where he dashes up to a single target and performs a massive flurry of blows, which can chain off themselves for a potentially massive explosion of damage. At level 4, he activates all his other Occult Arts simultaneously to completely annihilate all opponents, naming the technique the Empty Casket after what'll be at the target's funeral. Palace also has many innate powers that are locked off as well. Whenever he would be reduced to 0 or less stamina, Palace can defy death itself and revive with stamina, getting a significant buff if done at level 4 or higher. He can also use his seemingly unlimited energy to cyclically pay for his own abilities, having them refund parts of their costs if done successfully. Most scarily, Palace can take parts of his enemies soul when attacking them and slotting them into himself as a fuel source, getting a buff related to what their general kit is. If he gets two parts from the same category, Palace also gains a new part of his kit that optimizes him to be better in that archetype. Due to his bindings, Palace does not gain proficiency from criticals, and he can only gain proficiency in increments of 1 at a time. Destruction Bench Agreement Episode 62 - Episode 78 - Trivia * Much of Palace's kit is inspired by various fighting game final bosses. ** The idea of unlocking your abilities and having a Binding Queue is taken directly from Susanoo. ** Orb of Iconoclasm is a classic Hadoken, which can be used like Geese Howard's Repukken at level 3, and can be held on enemies like Susanoo's Inevitable Calamity. ** The Godpress is a classic type of move from various fighting game bosses, such as Susanoo's Splintering Thrust and Rugal's God Press. ** Molded Crucifix isn't taken directly from any specific final boss, although energy clones are a common occurrence in fighting games. Its level 4 affix of freezing people into metal statues is a reference to Rugal, who does that to his defeated enemies in lore. ** Omnipresence Shift is taken from many final bosses such as M Bison and Akuma. His ability to cancel whiffed attacks at level 2 is a reference to how such moves often allow these characters to use unsafe moves as if they were safe, or alternatively punish moves they shouldn't be able to. ** The Occult Arts are references to various classic supers used by various bosses. Genocide Wave is a generic beam super with a name inspired by Rugal's Genocide Cutter. Wyrmwood's Corona is a reference to Gill's Seraphic Wing. Massacre Reaper is a reference to the Raging Demon. ** Defy Death is a reference to Gill's resurrection super. At level 3 he can use bindings to reuse it much like how Gill uses super meter to reuse it. At level 4 he throws off his cape and "gets serious" with another turn on initiative, referencing how fights like Bison and Rugal have really easy first phases followed by crazy powerful second phases where they throw off their cape or robe. ** Power Paradox is a reference to Hilda's special character trait, where meter she uses for supers are partially refunded. The name itself references her pseudonym, Paradox. ** Original Sin is a reference to Android 21, who gets specials when performing a specific move on certain enemies based on what the character's origins are. Instead, Palace gets them just from attacking, and they're related to the kit archetype of the person attacked. ** The Worldforger Crucible is a reference to Shao Khan's hammer attack, which is infamous for being unblockable and having such a long stagger that it can be chained into itself multiple times. * Palace's design was initially an idea for a Kazimir design that Austin was thinking. Sylvia decided not to use it, but Zanza liked the design enough that he decided to use it for another character idea. It was changed to be less M Bison inspired and more Geese Howard inspired to fit the character a little more. Category:Characters Category:Destruction Bench Agreement Characters